1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to performance image information creating apparatus and method, and performance image information reproducing apparatus and method, for creating, editing and reproducing performance information and image information including images showing the manner of playing a piece of music represented by the performance information, and also relates to a storage medium storing a program or programs that implement these methods.
2. Prior Art
An application program, which is also called "multimedia authoring tool", is known which is adapted to paste or attach two-dimensional images or animation in accordance with a piece of music, using a general-purpose computer, such as a personal computer.
The images displayed along with a piece of music according to the application program as described above are still pictures or those represented by two-dimensional (2D) image data, but three dimensional (3D) image data cannot be displayed using the above application program.
Further, in editing displayed images, it is not easy to edit such images in accordance with playing or performance of a piece of music.
It is also difficult to completely synchronize displayed images with playing of a piece of music. For example, display of images cannot be easily changed in synchronism with a change in the tempo of playing of a piece of music, and visual effects cannot be easily applied to images to be displayed, in synchronism with playing of a piece of music.